All Civilization 7 difficulty levels, explained

Choosing the right difficulty in Civilization 7 can make an enormous difference. It ultimately decides whether you enjoy your gameplay or not, depending on your skills in the game. However, once you know how the system works, it’s an easy choice.

Each game in the Civilization franchise allowed players to set the difficulty level in their campaigns. The complexity of this choice, though, varied from game to game. Fortunately, it couldn’t have been simpler in the latest entry in the series.

How many difficulties are there in Civilization VII?

There are six difficulties to pick in Civilization 7. Although instead of being simple terms like “easy” and “medium,” they use historical language, so they may not be clear from the get-go, especially for those who are new to Civilization. Here’s the full list.

Now that we know the difficulty levels in Civilization 7, the question beckons: how do they work? Well, the answer is simpler than you might have expected.

How do difficulties work in Civilization VII?

Increasing your difficulty in Civilization 7 only enhances the enemy AI players by giving them more resources, accelerated production speed and increasing their units’ combat strength. Their behavior in terms of warmongering, diplomacy, trade, and so on won’t really change. The higher the difficulty, the more bonus resources enemies will get, giving them a much easier start to the gameplay.

This will put enemies ahead early on, but you can also use that knowledge to your benefit. Conquering the enemy players will put these resources in your hands, allowing you to dominate your region or continent. Additionally, outplaying AI becomes much easier once you spend a few hours in Civilization 7 and learn its behavior in a variety of situations.

How to change the difficulty level in Civilization 7

Sometimes, you may have upped your difficulty and found it too hard, or you are on the other side of the coin and want to increase it for more challenging gameplay. Unfortunately, you can only set it in the starting menu before the beginning of each game. Therefore, choose wisely, since once the world is set, there’s no way of going back and changing the difficulty.

Which difficulty should you choose in your Civilization VII playthrough?

This brings us to our ultimate question. Choosing the perfect difficulty in Civilization 7 mostly depends on your skills in the game. The newcomers to the series should try at least one campaign at the Scribe level since it’s just enough to have an easygoing first experience with the game. AI has debuffs in this one, but the following one, Governor, puts everyone even.

Players who aren’t new to the franchise or strategy games overall should feel free to try Viceroy and Sovereign. In these two, the AI start to get clear bonuses. Once you get the hang of the gameplay, either will become an entertaining challenge. It will be rewarding without forcing you to turn on the ultimate tryhard mode.

However, tryharding is almost necessary in the penultimate and final difficulty. For those who love strategy games and know how to handle multiple issues at once, Immortal and Deity difficulties are waiting. They provide enemies with massive amounts of bonuses, making each of them a worthy and annoying foe.

In the end, the best way of picking the right difficulty is simply to try them all and see which one brings you the most fun. Playing a few campaigns on your current difficulty should eventually make you progress to the next one.